


a state of minds

by allonsytastic



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alien Planet, Between Episodes, F/M, alien planet exploration, faintly introspective, fluffy alien pets, just a hint of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-30
Updated: 2016-03-30
Packaged: 2018-05-30 03:10:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6406333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allonsytastic/pseuds/allonsytastic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>"there was a sense of serenity around the Doctor"</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>No alien conspiracies to uncover, no civilization on the brink of extinction, no threats of impending doom hanging over them. Just the Doctor and Rose on a field trip.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a state of minds

**Author's Note:**

> i originally set out to write a nine/rose drabble. no idea where i went wrong^^  
> but there you are, my idea of Ten and Rose having a little down time :) 
> 
> as usual, i own none of the characters from Doctor Who. spelling as well as grammatical errors are all mine, though ;).

They had landed on Tibor, a planet similar to earth in many aspects. A blue sky (albeit with two suns instead of one) and a surface covered mostly in water were the most prominent parallels. Yet while similar in size, climate and atmosphere; evolution on Tibor had brought about an entirely different set of animals and vastly different plant life. Since only a comparatively low fraction of Tibor's surface was solid ground, most evolution processes had been set in its oceans. As a consequence, most of its plants and animals exhibited attributes and characteristics that would have been strongly associated with an underwater scenery on earth.

The Tardis had set down in the middle of a forest consisting of anemone-like trees, their branches swaying in the wind like their marine counterparts' tentacles in underwater current. They'd landed in the evening, twin suns setting on opposite ends of the horizon, illuminating the clouds in a spectrum of red and orange that made them seem ablaze.

As they were wandering through the alien landscape, past patches of red-leafed reeds and small clusters of humming land-weed, the Doctor kept pointing out plants and animals along the way. He was telling her anecdotes about their origin, about who had discovered them and how they'd been named. But not in his usual frantic all-over-the-place narrative. Right now he was pensive, wistful - trailing off in the middle of a sentence, leaving the words hanging in the air just to pick them back up moments later. This planet didn't have birds, rose learned, instead the descendants of a manta-ray-like species had taken to the sky and _look Rose, there they are drifting between the clouds, aren't they just marvelous?_

There was a sense of serenity around the Doctor here, she felt. No alien conspiracies to uncover, no civilization on the brink of extinction, no threats of impending doom hanging over them.

_No underlying urgency to constantly be doing something, anything, to keep from reiterating past decisions, conjuring memories of a planet destroyed and a species lost._

_No guilt._

* * *

 

It was as they stopped on a clearing to rest on a small spot of grass that they first came upon a Paleon. The Paleon is a curious creature, combining features of both chameleon and parrot. Anatomically, a Paleon is almost identical to a chameleon. Even though its skin is covered in thick fur (similar to that of a beaver or an otter), it is just as able of adjusting its color as its terrestrial counterpart. Quite contrary to said counterpart, however, the Paleon has found a way to incorporate the ability of voice imitation.

This particular Paleon was momentarily concealed in an adjacent patch of grass and so neither Rose nor the Doctor were aware of their silent observer. In fact, the Doctor had very nearly sat on it - a fate only averted by his desire to sit closer to Rose.

When they moved on, the Paleon bystander decided to accompany them. Strolling casually by their side, it went unnoticed by either. Their little party of three made its way through the jungle in companionable silence, exploring a path along a fores rivulet, stopping from time to time to marvel at the diversity of the wildlife and the alien elegance of the planet's fauna. the anemone trees' limb-like tentacle appendages were protruding high into the sky, tangled in an intricate web and casting ever-changing shadow patterns on the ground. The water was bustlig with life, colorful fish, slugs and other invertebrates contending for grub.

The Doctor was trailing behind rose (and the Paleon), when she stumbled over some unseen obstacle and topled to the ground hitting her head on a boulder in the process.

_Rose!_ The Doctor rushed to her side, his exclamation echoing through the woods.

* * *

 

Paleons are very good natured. They are also highly sensitive to emotions, especially distress, and it is their instinctive response to imitate distress calls to alert conspecifics in ther vicinity of potential danger. And so, Rose's Paleon friend made himself visible by adapting a friendly shade of light green and started to croak (faintly at first), as he stepped towards her. _Rhoos? Roohs. Roose_

Rose awoke to the Doctor's voice calling for her and a little furry creature sitting on her chest. As the Doctor himself was nowhere to be seen, her first impulse was to call out for him.

_Doc-tah_ , the little creature replied. _Roose. Doc-tah._ It tilted its head and looked at her. _Roose_ , it announced, in an impeccable imitation of the Doctor's timbre. This one had a light green pattern, but there were more, with different color schemes, sitting all around. There was a red one perched on a twig next to her shoulder, two blue ones (one light and one dark) considering her from a tree stump and a lilac one eyeing her from a safe distance behind a rock. The more she looked, the more of them there were, seemingly appearing out of nowhere on branches above her head and in the grass around her.

The Doctor came hurrying out of the woods, carrying an armful of weeds. _Rose! You're up!_ He threw his baggage to the ground and jumped to her side, careful not to squash any of the creatures looking on. _Roose_ , the surrounding paleons were murmuring in agreement. The Doctor had been collecting a local variety of herbs to nurse Rose's head injury but found that he might have been overzealous as she seemed to be doing fine. _(Jus' banged my head a little, that's all.)_ Relieved, the Doctor sank down into the grass next to her, leaning back onto one of the trees, and told her of the Paleons. _(Brilliant, they are! Bit reclusive, though. Never seen so many in one spot before. 'Seen' being the operative word though, i suppose...)_

Soon, dusk was upon them, and as night fell, multitudes of fireflies rose into the sky. _(not really fireflies,_ the Doctor explained _, more like a hovering, jellyfish-y kind of species)._ The Paleons had retreated into the thicket save for one. Covered in the same light green pattern as before, it had claimed a seat on Rose's shoulder which - as she jokingly concluded - officially made her a space pirate.

* * *

Despite the Doctor's best efforts _(he's gonna wee **everywhere**!)_ , _Frank the Paleon_ went on to become the Tardis' first non-metal pet. How much of that decision was actually down to the other two occupants remains questionable, however, since any attempts at extracting him would have been futile anyway.

_You try and catch a chameleon that doesn't want to be found._

 


End file.
